Challenging time for CPAs

Virginia’s CPAs will need to be an adaptable group in the coming months and years.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a road map for switching from GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) to IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). If the plan goes forward, the changeover will occur in phases starting in 2014.

The proposal reflects the global dimensions of the modern marketplace. Businesses in more than 100 countries already use IFRS. A column below by Rob Fisher and Jim Phillips, partners in KPMG’s Richmond office, explains what companies need to know about IFRS and how it could change their financial reports.

In addition to changing accounting standards, CPAs likely will have to help clients cope with a financial crisis that in recent months has threatened to bring the U.S. economy to its knees.

The CPAs listed on the following pages no doubt will be up to the challenge in both cases. They have been selected as Super CPAs by their peers in 12 categories.

This marks the seventh year that Virginia Business and the Virginia Society of CPAs have collaborated on the Super CPAs project. The process begins in the spring with about 7,000 ballots mailed to the members of VSCPA. From those ballots, more than 1,200 CPAs were nominated from across the state. Of those, 320 CPAs, roughly a quarter of the nominees, were selected for the list, based on the total votes they received.

In addition to the list, representatives from each category are briefly profiled. The profiled subjects were picked from the top 10 vote getters in each category, but they are not necessarily the ones receiving the most votes. Previous profile subjects were not considered. In addition to tax specialists from well-known accounting firms, the group includes a professor from the College of William & Mary, a financial officer from the United Way of Roanoke and the president of an employee-benefits company.

All of those on the list were licensed CPAs in Virginia as of July 1.
— The Editors